The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-06-30


cie-He Tells His Hearers How They,
Like Nimrod, May Become mighty
Hunters Before the Lord
BROOKLYN, June 2G.--Many of the fam
lies belonging to the church of which the
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., is pas
tor, have gone to the country for the
summer, but still the great throngs of
people that for eighteen years have been
seen in and around Brooklyn Tabernacle
on Sabbath days, are found there. 1t is
estimated that about 800, 600 strangers
have visited this church during the past
year. The hymn sung this morning was:
Salvation, oh, the joyful sound.
'Tis pleasure to cur ears;
A sovereign balm for every wound
cordial for our fears.
DR.. Talmage's text was: ssHe was a
mighty hunter before the Lord. Cen
esis Y, 8. He said:
In our day hunting is sport; but in
the lands and times infested with wild
beasts it was matter of life or death
WITH the people. 1t was very different
from going out on q sunshiny afternoon
with patent breech loader to shoot reed
birds on the fats, when Pollus and
Achilles and DiomedeS went out to clear
the land of lions and tigers and bears.
My text sets forth Nimrod as a hero when
it presents hiIa with broad shoulders and
shaggy apparel and sunbrowned face, and
arm punched with muscle-''a mighty
hunter before the Lordn think he used
the bow and the arrow, with great success
practicing archery.
/ have thought if it is such q grand
thing and such o brave thing to clear wild
beasts out of q country, if it is not a better
and braver thing to hunt down and de-
stroy those great evils of society that are
stalking the land with fierce eye and
bloody paw and sharp tusk and quick
spring, l have wondered if there is not
such thing as gospel hunting, by which
those who have been flying from the truth
may be captured for God and heaven.
The Lord Jesus in his sermon used the
art of angling for an illustration when he
said: Il will make you fishers of men,"
And so | think I have authority for using
hunting as an illustration of gospel truth;
nd pray God that there may be many
man in this congregation who shall begin
to study gospel archery, of whom it may
after while be said ''He was mighty
hunter before the Lord. y
How much awkward Christian work
good people there are who drive souls
away from Christ instead of bringing
them to him! Religious blunderers, who
upset more than they right. Their gun
has q crooked barrel, and kicks as it goes
Off They are like clumsy hunter who
goes along with skillful hunters; at the
very moment he ought to be most quiet
he is cracking an alder or falling over a
log and frightening away the game. How
few Christian people have ever learned
the lesson of which / read at the begin
ming of the service, how that the Lord
Jesus Christ at the well went from talk
ing about cup of water to the most prac-
tical religious truths, which won the wo-
mans soul for God, Jesus, in the wilder
ness, was breaking bread to. the people
/ think it was good bread; it was very
| light bread, and the yeast had done its
work thoroughly. Christ, after he had
broken the bread, said to the people: "Be-
ware of the yeast, or of the leaven, of the
! PhariseesH' So natural transition it
was, and how easily they all understood
him. But how few Christian people who
! understand how to fasten the truths of
God and religion to the souls of
men! Truman Osborne, one of the
evangeists who went through this
country some years ago, had a wonder
| full art in the right direction. He came to
my fathers house one day, and while we
were all seated in the room, he said: 'Mr.
Talmage, are all your children Christians?''
Father said: eyes, eli but De Witt"
Then Truman Osborne looked down into
the fireplace, and began to tell q story OF
q storm that came on the mountains, and
the sheep We're in the fold; but there was
one lamb outside that perished in the
storm. Had he looked me in the eye.
should have been angered when he told
me that story; but he looked into the fire
plase. and it was so patheticaliy ant
beautifully done that 1 never found any
peace until / was sure 1 was inside The
fold, where the other sheep are.
The archers of old times studied theil
art. They were very precise lin the mat
ter, The old books gave special directions
as to how the archer should go, and as tt
what an archer should do. He mus
stand erect and firm, his left foot littl,
in advance Of his right foot. With hi
left hand he must take hold of the bow il
the middle, and then with the three fin
gers and the thumb of his right hand h,
should lay hold of the arrow and affiX i
TO the string-so precise was the direction
given. But how clumsy we are about re
Egious work. How little skill and carr
we exercised How often our arrows mis-
the mark! Oh that we might learn th
art of doing good and become ''might.
hunters before the Lordp'
In the first place, if you want to be eff
fectual in doing good, you must be yer,
sure of your weapon. There was some
thing very fascinating about the archer.
of olden times Perhaps you do not know
what they could do with the bow and ar
row. Why, the chief battles fought b,
the English Plantagenets were with tn
long bow. They would take the arrow o
polished wood and feather it with tn
plume of bird, and then it would f.
from the bowstring Of plated silk. Th
broad fields of Agincourt and Solwa
Moss and Neville's Cross heard the lou
thrum of the archer's bowstring. Now
my Christian friends, we have mightie
weapon than that. Il is the arrow of til
Gospel it is sharp arrow; it is a straigh
arrow; it is feathered from the wing c
the dove Of Gods spirit; it flies from
bow made out Of the wood OF the cross
AS far as can estimate or calculate,
! has brought down 400,000,000 souls
Paul knew how TO bring the noto
,, of that arrow on to that bow
string, and its whir was heard throug
the Corinthian theatres, and through til
. court room, until the knees of Fell
| knocked together, 1t was that arrow tha
; stuck IN Luther's heart when he erie
out ooh, my sinsl Oh, my sins"
it strike man in the head, it kills h
slepticism; if it strike him in the heel
will turn his step; if it strike him in I'll
heart, he throws up his hands, as did or
of old when wounded in the battle, or.
, ing: ooh, GaGlean, thou hast COZ
quered."
In the armory of the Earl Of Pembrot
there are old corslets which show that I'll
arrow OF the English used to go throug
the breastplate, through the body of IL
warrior, and out through the backplat
What a symbol of that Gospel which
, sharper than q two edged sword, pieycir
-. n